


Exodus:20

by stickmarionette



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist
Genre: Canon - First Anime, Gen, Religions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-07-21
Updated: 2010-07-21
Packaged: 2017-10-10 17:17:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,290
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/102171
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stickmarionette/pseuds/stickmarionette
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ed, Rose, Dante, Al, Envy, Roy, Scar, Wrath, Winry, Izumi and their Ten Commandments.</p><p>Written in 2005.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Exodus:20

**Author's Note:**

> Blame for the idea goes to Blade Mistress, as usual. No offence is intended by the religious overtones.

**One**

_2 I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.   
3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me._

 

Edward does not think in straight lines, as some would suppose. Most would not be able untangle the weaving strands of his thoughts, even if they were given access to the workings of his mind. There are curves, circles, criss-crossing lines stretching out to infinity – that is how he conceives of the world, in curving lines, perfect circles and spiderweb connections.

Some would say that alchemy is his religion, and that could indeed be part of the answer. He worships at the altar of science, glorifying calculations, equations and arrays because they _are_ endless possibility.

But that is not all.

Perhaps he has faith only in the tangible, what he can make, unmake, destroy and create with his own imperfect hands.

That is also not completely true.

Edward only believes in his own power, intangible, endless and incomprehensible as it is, enough to match his will against the natural laws of the world and demand concessions from an entity as immovable as death itself.

If alchemy is his religion, does that make him his own God?

 

**Two**

_4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:  
5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;  
6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments._

 

The sun is not a God, Edward had said. Rose knows this - it is merely a ball of gas, nebulous and unbearably hot, burning up any who dare approach it. She has always known this, but it did not stop her from believing.

Edward is also not a God. He had shown her that in his imperfections and the limits of his ability. Had tried to impress on her the importance of walking her own path and guarding her own dreams.

Rose knows that she is no holy maiden. Only a mute, helpless victim of the ravages of war, and she wants to laugh and cry at the sheer audacity of these people, these blind and deaf people who look to her as a beacon of hope.

Stand up and walk forward, Edward said. She cradles the words of her not-God to her chest like a prayer.

She does not laugh or cry. She is silent.

 

**Three**

_7 Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain._

 

A wise man once said 'God is dead, we have killed him'. Dante fancies herself master of her own fate, always and forever. To her, God has always been dead.

If mankind can live forever, what need is there for a God who jealously guards the secrets of his immortality? She is the only overseer of humanity they will ever need or want, creating glory out of destruction and guiding the masses away from the evil of the Stone.

They used to scream for God to be their saviour before the end. That was many many years ago.

They scream for different gods now, different names and faces for the same higher entity that doesn't exist.

A wise man once said 'God is dead, we have killed him'.

Or was it a madman? She doesn't know, and she doesn't care.

 

**Four**

_8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.  
9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:  
10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:  
11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it._

 

Al does not sleep. There is no need for it – his body does not tire, so it needs no time to recharge. His mind does, though.

Experience has taught him that something resembling a light sleep is possible, if he has truly exhausted himself in endless dwelling and contemplation. It's something like a waking dream, disturbing and not at all restful, but he is thankful for it all the same.

They say that there is no rest for the wicked.

Al wanders the surface of his consciousness, craving the sleep of the dead.

 

**Five**

_12 Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee._

 

Ironically, the greatest constant of his long, boring life is not envy: it is hate. Envy hates Hohenheim with a passion lacking in every other aspect of his existence.

There is never space in the depths of his obsession for contemplation; never a moment spared for thought. There is only blinding gold, in cold, distant eyes and in long bright hair. The transmutation of gold is a felony, but the bastard obviously didn't care, because he went and made himself anew - young, powerful and passionate. Envy hates the copy just as much as the original.

It never occurs to him to hate Dante.

 

**Six**

_13 Thou shalt not kill._

 

Roy still wakes up with blood on his hands and the smell of burnt flesh in his throat, even though years have gone past.

It had never occurred to him that his flashy specialty could be used that way. Roy had never pictured burning city blocks and charred bodies, only the brightness and purity of his flames, born from endless practise and study.

It says something truly terrible about his youth naïveté that he gave it no thought before signing up.

 

**Seven**

_14 Thou shalt not commit adultery._

 

He doesn't want her.

It's a mantra, this _not wanting_, because the mere intent of wanting is a sin. She is not his, and he knows this.

She is his brother's future bride, and so he cannot want. Intent is as good as the crime itself, because their God sees all.

He doesn't want her, but he wishes that he could.

 

**Eight**

_15 Thou shalt not steal._

 

He has strange, mismatched limbs. They are his, but not. _Stolen_, says the armoured one. _Give them back._

_No_, he says. They are his, now, even if they were attached to another body before. It will not be called stealing anymore if the whole thing becomes his.

He'll just have to have the rest, then.

 

**Nine**

_16 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour._

 

_I don't know where he is_, she says.

Mustang clearly doesn't believe her, and Al would probably have wanted her to tell him, but there are things that Al doesn't know.

Winry shuts the door in his face.

 

**Ten**

_17 Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's._

 

Izumi looks after the other children in the neighbourhood. Their parents smile patronizingly at her and say: _you would have made a fabulous mother, dear._

She finds somewhere within herself to hide the longing, but it is a close, difficult thing.

 

_fin._


End file.
